


Whispers In The Dark

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Mythological Creatures Alphabet Challenge [17]
Category: All Time Low, You Me At Six
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-19
Updated: 2015-05-19
Packaged: 2018-03-31 07:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3969009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan and Josh move into a small cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. Everything is perfect at first, but then things start happening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whispers In The Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I skipped Q, because the only thing I could find was Quetzalcoatl, which I was never going to be able to work with, so I scraped it and decided to pretend that the letter Q doesn't exist. 
> 
> R is for Ra. Not the Egyptian sun God, a Scandinavian spirit which is a keeper or warden of a particular location or landform.
> 
> I may have to skip a few other letters towards the end of the alphabet, I'll see how it goes.

Josh and Dan don’t believe in ghosts or spirits. Or, at least, they didn’t. Not until they moved into their new home. It’s a gorgeous cottage in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales, with nothing and no-one for miles around. It’s a wedding present from Josh’s parents, and it is, by far, their favourite gift.

For the first month or so, it’s as peaceful, idyllic and perfect as they expected it to be. But then, things start happening. It starts small, at first, Josh’s keys disappear for a few days, only to turn up in one of Dan’s boots; Dan’s mobile somehow ends up in the fridge; and their dog, a seven month old Doberman named Atlas, Attie, who’s usually a sweet, quiet dog, starts growling at something they can’t see. 

Things start getting weird, though. One night, five weeks after they moved in, Dan’s woken up by Attie growling at the foot of the bed, just after three in the morning. He quiets Attie down, then listens closely, trying to hear anything that might have set him off. It only takes a few seconds for him to hear it, a slight scuffling downstairs. 

Without hesitation, Dan leans over and shakes Josh awake.

“Babe… I think there’s someone downstairs. I’m going down to check, stay here, and be ready to phone the police,” he tells him, ignoring the worried look on Josh’s face as he tugs the baseball bat from under the bed, and pads quickly and quietly to the bedroom door, stopping only to softly command Attie to stay.

Thankfully, despite the house being so old, it lacks in squeaky floorboards, so Dan manages to get down to the ground floor in almost complete silence. The noises have stopped now, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe, so he creeps from room to room, bat at the ready. He doesn’t find anything, though, until he reaches the kitchen, and what he does find makes him gust out a sharp breath of surprise.

“Babe, you don’t have to phone the police, but you might want to come and see this!” He calls up to Josh, and he stays standing in the doorway until Josh joins him, gaping at the sight in front of them. All of the chairs are stacked in almost a pyre on top of the table, a second, smaller pyre-esque pile of Attie’s toys and bowls on top of the first; and every single thing in the kitchen, food, cutlery, bowls, plates, pots, and pans, have been moved. They haven’t just been thrown around, as though someone was looking for something, they’ve been carefully arranged into piles and patterns. They’re both exhausted, so rather than tidy everything up, they just put the frozen and refrigerated food away, retrieve Attie’s bowls from the top of the pyre, and go back to bed.

It keeps happening, every night that week, never with any sign of a break-in, or anything being taken, and Dan starts to get annoyed. On the fifth night, he moves the small, but sturdy and heavy shoe cupboard to block the front door, and drags the waist height bookcase from the hall to block the back door. The next morning, though, everything’s been moved again, and all of the books and shoes have been taken out and stacked in pyramids on top of their respective cabinets.

When he sees this, Dan stops being annoyed, and gets angry. Without a word, he goes tearing through the house, emptying cupboards and throwing things around in the cellar and loft. Josh finally catches up to him as he jumps down from the loft.

“Dan, what the hell are you doing?” He asks softly, tears of concern in his eyes.

“The fucker is in the house somewhere. There is no way they could have gotten in without moving those cabinets, and they couldn’t have moved them without waking us up. That means the fucker has been in the house from the very fucking beginning. And I’m going to find them, and I’m going to make them fucking pay. No-one fucks with my husband, with our home, and gets away with it,” he snarls, going to swerve around Josh to keep looking, but Josh grabs his arm, a look of desperation in his eyes.

“Please, you’re scaring me. It’s probably just some kids getting in a window, or something,” he tries to reason, but Dan shakes his head.

“I lock every single window in the house every night, and the nearest form of civilisation is thirty miles away. They wouldn’t make a trek like that every night just to fuck with us, whoever is doing this is in this house, I know it,” he insists, and Josh sighs.

“Well, you’ve torn apart every place they could be hiding, so either you’re wrong, or it’s a ghost,” Josh argues, and Dan scoffs, but a voice from the end of the hallway makes them both freeze.

“I prefer the term ‘Ra’, ghost just sounds ridiculous,” the soft, American voice informs them, and they both spin around to gape at the tall, thin, almost gangly figure at the far end of the hallway.

“Please don’t tell me you’re claiming to be an Egyptian sun god,” is all Josh can think to say, and the man laughs.

“No, same name, different beings. I am a spirit of Scandinavian origins. Now, please, leave my home,” he tells them, much more politely than either of them would have expected. That doesn’t stop Dan getting angry.

“Look, I don’t know if you’re a squatter, or just a nutjob, or what, but you don’t belong here, so stop spouting your bullshit and get the fuck out, before I phone the police,” he snaps, and right before their eyes, the man flickers and vanishes.

“I am neither a squatter, nor crazy, you are in my home, and I’d like you to leave,” his voice comes from behind them, and they spin around, gaping at him.

They both find they can’t quite come up with a reasonable explanation for how he pulled it off, so Josh decides to just go with it.

“Well, why can’t we all live here together, peacefully? We’re sorry we disturbed you, but we love this house just as much as you do, we intend on taking the absolute best care of it that we can, what’s so bad about all of us living here, without bothering each other?” He reasons, and the Ra considers it.

“Well, the reason I’m here is to protect the house and the land surrounding it. I guess finding it owners that love it and will care for it would be a very good way of protecting it… Also, I like your dog,” he agrees, adding the last with a grin as Attie clicks over to him and rubs against his leg. “Well, now that he’s stopped growling at me, anyway. Most animals do, though. They don’t like that they can feel me, but not see me. He’s much sweeter, now that he can see me,” he continues, rubbing Attie’s ear affectionately.

Josh smiles and nods encouragingly.

“Yeah, Attie’s a really sweet little guy, and he loves this house, too. So, you’re ok with us being here? You won’t keep trying to drive us out?” He asks, and the Ra nods.

“You’re right, the best thing for the house is for you to stay. I will stop harassing you,” he agrees, and they both grin.

And so, that’s how Josh and Dan came to believe in spirits. They never actually see the Ra again, but they know he’s still there. Things still move every now and again, but not in the way they used to. Keys and mobiles still move, but now, they’re moved to places where they’re easier to find; Attie’s toys reappear after being lost under the couch, or behind things; Dan’s always had a habit of leaving his shoes lying around, and now, they’re always placed neatly in the shoe cupboard; every now and again, Attie will wag his tail at seemingly nothing, then roll over to get his belly rubbed. Just small things, which would once have freaked them out, but now give them an odd sense of comfort. And they stick to their word, they do anything and everything it takes to keep it in the best condition possible, not out of obligation, not to keep the Ra off their backs, but out of genuine love and care for the property, and everyone’s happy, without anyone even trying.


End file.
